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Telenutrition for Individuals With SCI

Telenutrition to Improve Cardiometabolic Health and Quality of Life Among Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury

Status
Active, not recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05468437
Enrollment
96
Registered
2022-07-21
Start date
2022-06-13
Completion date
2027-08-31
Last updated
2026-09-01

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Cardiometabolic Syndrome, Obesity, Spinal Cord Injuries

Keywords

Spinal Cord injury, Obesity, Cardiometabolic, cardiovascular, bowel, bladder, nutrition, telehealth

Brief summary

This study will provide nutrition counseling via FaceTime on an iPad to persons with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) who are overweight or obese and are at least one-year post-injury. Nutrition counseling may help participants to develop eating behaviors that match the participants' needs and help improve heart health. The purpose of this project is to decrease the risk of complications like obesity, high cholesterol, or diabetes, and explore associations between bowel and bladder function and nutrition. This study will require 3 in person visits that are about 3 months apart. The total length of the study is about 6 months and includes 3 months of telenutrition counseling.

Detailed description

The first phase of this study will include screening the participants' medical record for study eligibility. If potentially eligible, participants will partake in a secondary in-person screening assessment involving a fasting blood draw and weight, height, body fat, and waist circumference measurements. After the team receives the screening results and if participants continue to remain eligible, the second phase of the study (described below) will begin. Following screening, participants will be enrolled into the 6-month study. Half of the enrolled participants will be scheduled for telenutrition counselling within the first three months of the study period. This group is called the "immediate treatment group". The other half will receive telenutrition counselling in the second three-month period. This group is called the "delayed treatment group". Participants will be informed which group they are assigned to and provided with details of the care that they will receive shortly after the screening phase is completed. Participants will have 50% chance of being assigned to the immediate treatment group and 50% chance of being assigned to the delayed treatment group. Both groups will receive the same nutrition education and individualized nutrition counselling via videoconferencing with iPad FaceTime, which is aimed to decrease the risk of complications like obesity, high cholesterol, or diabetes, and explore associations between bowel and bladder function and nutrition. The telenutrition counselling consists of 6 sessions that are scheduled approximately 2 weeks apart. The first session will last approximately 1 hour, while sessions 2-6 will last approximately 30mins. During these sessions, the Registered Dietitian will share nutrition education tailored towards people with SCI. Participants will be involved in developing personal nutrition goals and the dietitian will help address barriers to meeting goals and provide individualized feedback to improve and maintain their nutrition. Telenutrition appointments will maintain privacy and will not be recorded. To help participate in telenutrition sessions and complete the required assessments, each participant will receive an iPad mini with a 6-month data plan. Once study participation is complete, the investigators will stop the data plan but participants will get to keep the iPads. There are 3 outcome assessment spaced 3 months apart (baseline, short-term, and intermediate term). Each will include the same outcome assessments involving surveys, body measurements, and a blood draw.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALTelenutrition

Nutrition education and individualized nutrition counseling will be done with a Registered Dietitian via video-conferencing with iPad FaceTime, which is aimed to decrease the risk of complications like obesity, high cholesterol, or diabetes, and explore associations between bowel and bladder function and nutrition. The telenutrition counseling consists of 6 sessions that are scheduled approximately 2 weeks apart. The first session will last approximately 1 hour, while sessions 2-6 will last approximately 30mins. During these sessions, the Registered Dietitian will share nutrition education tailored towards people with SCI. You will be involved in developing personal nutrition goals and the dietitian will help you address barriers to meeting your goals and provide individualized feedback to improve and maintain your nutrition. Telenutrition appointments will maintain privacy and will not be recorded.

Sponsors

Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System
Lead SponsorOTHER
San Jose State University
CollaboratorOTHER
University of California, San Francisco
CollaboratorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE

Intervention model description

This is a wait-list control study. Individuals in the immediate treatment group will receive the intervention in the first 3 months, followed by a 3 month durability phase. The delayed treatment group will receive the intervention in the second 3 month period.

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
20 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

1. Individuals with traumatic SCI 2. At least 1-year post-injury 3. Age 20 years of age or older 4. BMI \> 22 kg/m2 at enrollment 5. Proficiency in English or Spanish 6. Living at home or in a private home setting (i.e., not an extended care facility) in the state of California 7. Able / willing to come to SCVMC for in-person assessments 8. Primarily a wheelchair user (\>40 hours per week) 9. Able to use, or learn how to use, an iPad 10. Possess adequate decision-making capacity to provide independent informed consent

Exclusion criteria

1. Medical instability (e.g., uncontrolled hypertension, pneumonia, severe pressure injury) 2. Current self-reported pregnancy 3. Other medical condition requiring a strict specialized diet (e.g., renal failure, diabetes) 4. Participation in another diet program (e.g., Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, clinic-based program) and/or participated in another diet program within the past 6 months 5. Current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder (e.g., anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder) 6. Receiving enteral nutrition 7. Individuals without a primary care physician 8. HbA1c \>7% (these individuals would need to be treated with metformin or other anti-diabetic medication and the intervention would have to be significantly altered for them) 9. Individuals who are in law enforcement custody

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores0, 3 and 6 monthsHEI scores from participants' individual dietary intakes at different time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months from baseline, end of 6 months from baseline) will be reported. Changes in HEI scores following intervention will be compared to pre-intervention baseline scores (within group comparison) as well as scores from the waitlisted group (between group comparison) and reported accordingly. In addition, longer-term changes in HEI scores (for individuals from the immediate intervention group) during the durability phase will also be reported.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Blood lipid profile0, 3 and 6 monthsLipid profile constituting of Triglycerides (TG), Total Cholesterol (TC); low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and High-density lipoprotein (HDL)- values (all expressed as mg/dL) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). In addition, absolute changes in values will also be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).
HbA1C0, 3 and 6 monthsBlood values of HbA1C (expressed as percentage) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). Changes in percent values will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).
Vitamin D0, 3 and 6 monthsBlood values of Vitamin D (expressed as ng/mL) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). In addition, absolute changes will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).
high-sensitivity C-reactive protein [hs-CRP]0, 3 and 6 monthsBlood values of hs-CRP (expressed as mg/L) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). In addition, absolute changes will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group)
Body Mass Index (BMI)0, 3 and 6 monthsMultiple measures (weight in kg and height in meters) will be aggregated to arrive at one reported BMI values (expressed as kg/m\^2). BMI values will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). Absolute changes in values will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).
Waist circumference0, 3 and 6 monthsWaist circumference (in inches) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). Absolute changes in values will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).
Fat percent0, 3 and 6 monthsFat percent (%) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). Changes in percentage values will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).
Bowel function0, 3 and 6 monthsChanges in bowel function (as determined by the Simon Fraser University (SFU) bowel survey questions based on a rating scale) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). Changes in perceived rating will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).
Bladder function0, 3 and 6 monthsChanges in bladder function (as determined by the SF-Qualiveen survey expressed as a score) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). Changes in scores will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).
Quality of Life (Qol) measure0, 3 and 6 monthsChanges in Qol \[using the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) survey based on a rating scale) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). Changes in perceived ratings will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).
Frequency of Autonomic Dysreflexia (AD)0, 3 and 6 monthsChanges in frequency of AD (as determined by the SFU AD survey questions expressed on a 5-point likert scale) will be reported at all time-points of evaluations (baseline/pre-intervention, end of 3 months and at the end of 6 months). Changes in rating will be reported following intervention compared to pre-intervention levels (within group comparison) and waitlisted group (between group comparison) as well as during the durability phase (for the immediate intervention group).

Countries

United States

Contacts

PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORKazuko Shem, MD

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Sep 2, 2026